In-Q-Tel backs private cloud OS for intelligence community

In-Q-Tel, the technology investment firm funded by the CIA, signed a deal this week with Adaptive Computing aimed at developing a cloud operating system primed for the needs of intelligence agencies.

In the deal, Adaptive Computing would integrate its Moab cloud management software suite with an open source private cloud platform to develop an operating system that would be highly responsive to the computing needs of the intelligence community.

The firm did not specify a private cloud platform to develop the OS. Potential candidates are OpenStack and CloudStack, according to InformationWeek.

Last year Adaptive Computing upgraded Moab to enable it to deliver automated, policy-based changes to virtual services in the data center as called for by the requirements of an application or customer.

The suite can set up the migration of virtual machines to use hardware resources more efficiently or otherwise manage computing resources depending on the demand for services.

That ability brings “policy-based optimization to the cloud management,” Adaptive said in announcing the deal with In-Q-Tel. Computing resources, maintenance reservations and migrations related to the cloud could be automated as a customer’s policy dictated.

“The Moab integration with open source will lead to increased flexibility and cost savings for In-Q-Tel’s customers in the intelligence community,” said Rob Clyde, CEO of Adaptive Computing.